Been on TRT for 2 years, had some ups and downs but lately everything has been going great. Only issue I have health wise is easily fatigued, dizzy spells after exercise. That comes and goes, but gotten worse in the last few months.
My protocol consists of 100MG/wk, twice weekly. No AI.
Chol Total 202 (100-199) <barely high, always has been for me
LDL 129 (0-99) <High
HDL 47 (>39)
I have been donating blood for over a year now every 2 months, because my Hematocrit was high, along with RBC. Got that in check for a few blood tests, until this latest blood test. MCV and MCH has been low since I started donating blood. The DR told me to stop giving blood, because my iron was too low. I have no problem backing off the blood donations if necessary.
I am wondering if I should take iron or is that going to make my RBC count go even higher, and affect my Hematocrit level which is OK at this moment. Messed up blood counts scares me, I don’t want to have a heart attack or stroke. I’m not sure what low MCV and MCH really means.
What I decided to do is back down to 80MG week T, stop donating blood, and take 65mg iron pill daily for 6 months. Any thoughts on this?
[quote]Jdeck wrote:
Been on TRT for 2 years, had some ups and downs but lately everything has been going great. Only issue I have health wise is easily fatigued, dizzy spells after exercise. That comes and goes, but gotten worse in the last few months.
My protocol consists of 100MG/wk, twice weekly. No AI.
Chol Total 202 (100-199) <barely high, always has been for me
LDL 129 (0-99) <High
HDL 47 (>39)
I have been donating blood for over a year now every 2 months, because my Hematocrit was high, along with RBC. Got that in check for a few blood tests, until this latest blood test. MCV and MCH has been low since I started donating blood. The DR told me to stop giving blood, because my iron was too low. I have no problem backing off the blood donations if necessary.
I am wondering if I should take iron or is that going to make my RBC count go even higher, and affect my Hematocrit level which is OK at this moment. Messed up blood counts scares me, I don’t want to have a heart attack or stroke. I’m not sure what low MCV and MCH really means.
What I decided to do is back down to 80MG week T, stop donating blood, and take 65mg iron pill daily for 6 months. Any thoughts on this?
Anybody have thoughts or have similar issues. [/quote]
Your blood donation affects this but:
MCV, MCH and MCHC are tested for anemia.
Low results often means iron defiency anemia.
There is a thing called mircocytic hypochromic anemia.
Your RBC is high but it doesn’t mean anything really in this case.
You don’t have to worry about stroke…
RDW ( Red cell Distribution Width ) tells us your red blood cells have changed in size recently, this is typical when experiencing anemia.
Your fatique and dizzyness too.
Before you supplement with iron, it’s always near necessity to measure 3 tests of:
Iron
Transferrin
Ferritin
Tell your doctor about the blood donations.
P.S: As long as i recall right, hemoglobin is the iron bound part of the red blood cell. I have to refresh memory on that one better.
Edit: I think lowering the dosage of Testosterone is good thing though for RBC atm. Supplement with iron for better hemoglobin etc but again consult doctor first nad check the tests.
As you pointed out, my hemoglobin is also borderline low… The thing that concerns me about all this is that I haven’t given blood in two months. I would think my iron would have rebounded, but I read somewhere that iron is mostly recycled and not easily replenished.
After seeing these test results, I believe that my weakness, shortness of breath, and fatigue is probably due to the low iron and blood levels. Maybe oxygen is not being transported well.
[quote]Jdeck wrote:
As you pointed out, my hemoglobin is also borderline low… The thing that concerns me about all this is that I haven’t given blood in two months. I would think my iron would have rebounded, but I read somewhere that iron is mostly recycled and not easily replenished.
After seeing these test results, I believe that my weakness, shortness of breath, and fatigue is probably due to the low iron and blood levels. Maybe oxygen is not being transported well.
Thank you for your reply.
Anybody else gone through this type of thing?[/quote]
It’s definitely the thing bro, it’s 99.99% certainty the iron.
Everything in your lab results supports it. Hemoglobin is the protein carrying oxygen and with iron deficiency you won’t get good levels.
Thats good to know about the Hemoglobin transporting oxygen. After I gave blood the last time, I played softball that night and I felt like I was going to pass out the whole time. I had normally felt really good after donating, but not last time.
hey there! I have some of the same blood CBC levels you have and Im dealing with low libido, ED, and fatigue while on TRT. Has supplement iron made any difference over the course of time? or was there an underlying cause?
Iron deficiency is the cause of dizzy spells and fatigue. I’m currently experiencing the exact same symptoms as you. My MCV and MCH while not as low as yours, I seem to hit the critical anemia stage very early where most would only experience minor symptoms.
My abdomen would bloat and gut would become paralyzed and cause bilateral edema. My urination and bowel movements would cease on top of the lightheadedness and extreme fatigue.
I hope you realize how serious your situation really is, people can suffer organ damage or life threatening situations from low iron. You need an iron panel and need to supplement iron two-three times daily for 3-4 weeks and redo an iron panel.
Once iron is in a healthy range, you will need a maintenance dosage of iron from here on out.
You need to consult a doctor to determine how much iron to supplement based off your iron panel because too much can create iron toxicity, which can be dangerous.
I would want to investigate why iron is so low. Causes can be from chronic blood loss within the body, peptic ulcer, a hiatal hernia, a colon polyp or colorectal cancer.
